Does that "51nb" Chinese company still make modded Thinkpads? I bought their "51nb X62" model Thinkpad a few years back from an eBay user, though unfortunately it eventually died. It was a motherboard replacement of the old Thinkpad X60 from many years ago. Replacing the old single core CPU with an Intel Broadwell era i5 and up to 32 gigs of memory You could also install an M.2 SSD in it I believe. Along with USB 3 a…
ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
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Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#32Is there really a market for modding a 7+ year old laptop? I know thinkpads used to be great (And some still are), but, I just don't get the point in trying to give more life to something so so old - most likely ~3rd-4th gen intel.
I have 2 t420 and 2 t420s at home. They're awesome - much much better keyboard with standard layout than any newer model (other than perhaps the retro t25).
I have more modern think pads as well but I plan to keep the t420's for a while. They're solid reliable expandable and great form factor :)
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#33Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#34Are all Thinkpads with ExpressCard/54 supported? http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ExpressCard_slot I have an old X200 laying around and I was thinking of reactivating it, but it's from 2008..
According to this Reddit thread, it should be: https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/evtje2/its_finall...
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#35Is there really a market for modding a 7+ year old laptop? I know thinkpads used to be great (And some still are), but, I just don't get the point in trying to give more life to something so so old - most likely ~3rd-4th gen intel.
I'd be happy to buy a replacement battery for my X220 from a non-sketchy source if I knew it had new, matched cells and wasn't going to explode.
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#36That's a slightly odd name for a store with only one product. Hope to see more in the future:)
I agree! It would be awesome to see more stuff like: - BIOS with core/libreboot[0] - mainboard replacement (e.g. to support USB 3) [1] - better screens [2] - something to deal with that awful touchpad There is already people out there doing it and clearly TP's are some of the most used laptops on this planet for a reason so there is a market. [0]: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/x200.html [1]: http://panacek.net/…
Don't get me wrong, I really want all those things. So much so that I actually spent a hefty sum on my current TP (X1 Yoga '3rd', 2018) to get all those things 'guaranteed' now and option for later (I'm not much of a hardware tinkerer, but I could already see 2028 and me tweaking it up).
That being said,
I think it's still a small market. All of TPs I mean, new, used & yet to come (I've got a solid theory that ThinkPads may outlast the heat death of the universe, paper coming soon(tm) ). Seriously, the reason is that the used market is precisely interesting because it's cheap (it's almost a commodity market at that point) whereas the new market is becoming niche like all laptops, like desktops before — think that, for all their glory, GPUs only sell in the single-digit millions to consumers per year — no wonder the juice for these lies in enterprise.
So I think you've got room for maybe a few small businesses, small custom shops of a single to few employees, shipping worldwide of course (and I'm not a logistics expert but this is the kind of space where ideally you really want to 'shopify' directly from factory to customer because each cent will be hard fought for). Most of what people use to tweak TPs is already cheap as hell on Aliexpress or eq.
I wish it weren't so. Please tell me I''m wrong about this.
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#37Can you run linux on it? Just want a dual boot win/linux portable, not necessarily latest.
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#38I'd like to see the real prototype myself: those connectors on top of a PCB seem too thick to fit into an EC slot - but there have been SSDs made in that form factor.
Edit: nevermind, he found a thinner connector. I should've read the Indiegogo page before commenting :)
Other than that, this adapter would be great for any laptop with an ExpressCard slot. I can't believe no one's made one before. Kind of late now that new laptops don't have the port, though.
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#39It would be nice to know what material/process is used to make the plastic(?) enclosure. Given that the funding goal is $1400 / $1600, I'm assuming it's 3d printed rather than injection molded, but maybe they were able to get a standard part? Otherwise, this appears to be a (rare) good example of a well-planned crowdfunding campaign. The actual design is either completely or almost completely de-risked via one or mor…
I don't think it's a commercial part - if you look closely at the photo of the first prototype, the left side of the sled shows some distinct lines that look like FDM layers. It also seems like the maker is producing these in small batches in his home lab, so 3D printing makes sense. That said, the CAD model of v2 seems to show some kind of ejector or retention mechanism (in green, again on the left) which could be t…
A lot of people are integrating FDM or other AM techniques into their production, so it doesn't meant it will be home-produced. You can order small batches from Stratasys, 3D Systems or any of the other big manufacturers and you get reliable parts with good tolerances and post-treatment etc., without committing to with injection molding.
Re: ThinkPad Mods, Done Right
#40That's a slightly odd name for a store with only one product. Hope to see more in the future:)
I agree! It would be awesome to see more stuff like: - BIOS with core/libreboot[0] - mainboard replacement (e.g. to support USB 3) [1] - better screens [2] - something to deal with that awful touchpad There is already people out there doing it and clearly TP's are some of the most used laptops on this planet for a reason so there is a market. [0]: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/x200.html [1]: http://panacek.net/…
Something like the X62, but with more updates